Computer games and watching TV raises heart concerns

WATCHING too much television or spending long periods playing computer games is bad for your heart, research suggests.

A study by University College London found that compared with people who spent less than two hours a day on screen-based entertainment, those who devoted more than four hours to these activities were more than twice as likely to have a serious heart problem.

And minimal amounts of exercising did not appear to cancel out the negative effects of TV watching or computer playing, according to the study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The research was based on more than 4,500 adults who responded to the 2003 Scottish Health Survey. Researcher Emmanuel Stamatakis said: "People who spend excessive amounts of time in front of a screen - primarily watching TV - are more likely to die of any cause and suffer heart-related problems. Our analysis suggests that two or more hours of screen time each day may place someone at greater risk for a cardiac event."

Dr Stamatakis said the reason exercise did not mitigate the effects of screen time was because so few people did the necessary level of activity. The researchers now want to study what prolonged sitting does to the body and how to change lifestyles to increase activity.